With the caveat that more new pitches may be revealed this spring, so far three pitchers said they are working on new pitches. And my intuition is that a fourth pitcher may reveal a new pitch. Let’s look at each of the four pitchers.
For a broader look at pitch types for all Diamondbacks pitchers, see this AZ Snake Pit article.
Tommy Henry.
2024 Season. Data from Baseball Savant & Baseball Reference.
With 5 pitches including each category fastball, breaking, and offspeed, it’s not that he has an urgent need. However, he thinks a cutter would improve his results against right-handed batters. Last season his fastballs had worse results against right-handed batters (4-seam was .427 vs .354 and sinker was .502 vs .381). If his new cutter has a wOBA better than .427 against right-handed batters, then the new type of pitch will be an incremental improvement.
“I’ve got a little bit of a new cutter that I’m kinda messing with, which has been kinda fun. Hoping to kinda speed up some righties, kinda creating some space to righties. We’ll see how it works to lefties.” — Tommy Henry, Wolf and Doug Show, February 2025
His Mindset: When he can keep a present focus, without allowing distractions to bother him, he often gets good results. In addition, he is motivated by experiencing highs and lows. When a low causes a fire underneath his soul, good things often result.
“The times I can give myself 10 out of 10. I was really present. All I did today was just compete against the hitter. I let everything negative, or whatever, roll off my back, and I was really present. Those are the times that align with good results.” — Tommy Henry, Wolf and Doug Show, February 2025
The following quote was in the context that the highs and the lows equip players for the future.
“Sometimes you need to have a little extra fire underneath you to get going. … And there’s the experience with the fire underneath that I think is a recipe for good things.” — Tommy Henry, Wolf and Doug Show, February 2025
Ryan Thompson.
2024 Season. Data from Baseball Savant & Baseball Reference.
“In his 2023 review for Thompson, Makakilo was generally pretty optimistic on Thompson’s role and projected performance for 2024 mostly as a setup man for other higher-leverage bullpen arms like Paul Sewald or Kevin Ginkel. That optimism ended up being well-placed as Thompson was the D-Backs’ second-most valuable reliever by bWAR, trailing only Justin Martinez’s 2.0 bWAR for the season.” — mcbenseigs, December 2024
Last season, Ryan Thompson pitched sliders, sinkers, and 4-seam fastballs. He said he has been developing new pitches. I don’t know what they are, but by guess they are off-speed pitches that will complement his breaking and fastball pitches.
“…and you get to see guys adding new pitches and all sorts of things. For me, my goal was I’ve been working on new pitches, working on different ideas for just being more consistent with my mechanics, and I felt like I had some holes in my game last year.” — Ryan Thompson, Wolf and Luke show, Feb 2025
His Mindset: He has deeply held truth that his dad taught him. The following quote says it best:
“My dad taught me when I was a little kid that there is no such thing as staying the same. You are either getting better or you’re getting worse.” — Ryan Thompson, November 2023.
After the surgery, he remade himself by being a realistic, honest evaluator of his performance, and every day seeking things to improve. He knew who he was as a pitcher.
“That’s a little bit of the bumps in the road that I took in the past was trying to figure out who I was and what my identity was as a pitcher again.” — Ryan Thompson, November 2023.
AJ Puk.
2024 Season. Data from Baseball Savant & Baseball Reference.
He is one of the best relievers in the Majors per this AZ Snake Pit Player Review.
His WPA was by far the best of the Diamondbacks when leverage was above average per this AZ Snake Pit Article.
This offseason, AJ Puk has been developing a changeup to go with his slider, sinker and 4-seam fastball.
“You want those hitters to be in the scouting report [thinking about a] changeup, so that’s just another thing I’ve got to think about, and just show a pitch moving the other way. Just gives them one more pitch to think about. We’ll see. It’s early, so we’ll see if the coaching staff likes it or not.” — AJ Puk, February 2025
“I’ve thrown plenty of different [grips] on the back [field], but definitely just trying to add something that’s more comfortable.” — AJ Puk, February 2025
His Mindset: My view is he is like a construction worker. He first builds his routine, then builds his approach to getting batters out.
“ I’m happy where I’m at. I’m filling up the zone, throwing a lot of strikes, getting ahead of hitters, able to go with my put-away stuff pretty early. [I] keep building on that and keep building. I definitely have more work to do.” — AJ Puk March 2024
Kendall Graveman.
2023 Season. Data from Baseball Savant & Baseball Reference.
In 2023, he had 5 pitches including each category fastball, breaking, and offspeed. 2023 was his latest season because he had shoulder surgery. He resumed throwing late last summer, and had plenty of time to get ready for spring training. Optimistically, maybe he had time to rework and improve one of his pitches!
This season there is a chance he will successfully rework one of his pitches and pitch it more frequently. This would not be the first time he improved his arsenal.
In 2021, when he became a reliever, he made two changes in in his arsenal. He greatly improved the wOBA of his 4-seam fastball (.677 in 2018 to .200 in 2023) and he increased how often he threw it (1.7% in 2018 to 22.6% in 2023). Also, he started throwing a curveball, which became his much-needed PutAway pitch (it had the highest PutAway percentage in each of 2021, 2022, and 2023).
His Mindset: Graveman (just called up) introduced himself to Derek Jeter (two weeks away from retirement), who was working on his baserunning hours before game time.
“Just remember one thing. Always have fun playing the game.” — Derek Jeter, 2014 as heard by Kendall Graveman
“I saw two things in that moment. I saw a guy that no matter how late in his career he was still working his butt off trying to get better. And I saw, two, he told me to have fun always playing the game. And always enjoy the game. And I thought those two things that really resonate with me from a young guy just getting into the big leagues… I thought that was something that will always resonate with me, and can resonate in me with anything. Always have fun doing what you’re doing. And always, no matter how much you think you have it figured out, try to get incrementally better.” — Kendall Graveman, October 2024
Summary.
Three pitchers (Henry, Thompson, and Puk) said they are working on new pitches. And my intuition is that Graveman may reveal a new pitch.
Tommy Henry. Last season his fastballs had worse results against right-handed batters. If his new cutter has a wOBA better than .427 against right-handed batters, then it will be an improvement compared to his other fastballs. Two highlights of his mindset:
- When he can keep a present focus, without allowing distractions to bother him, he often gets good results.
- He is motivated by experiencing highs and lows. When a low causes a fire underneath his soul, good things often result.
Ryan Thompson. He said he has been developing new pitches. I don’t know what they are, but by guess they are off-speed pitches that will complement his breaking and fastball pitches. The highlight of his mindset is that you are either getting better or you’re getting worse.
AJ Puk. This offseason, AJ Puk has been developing a changeup to go with his slider, sinker and 4-seam fastball. The highlight of his mindset is that he is like a construction worker. He first builds his routine, then builds his approach to getting batters out.
Kendall Graveman. When he became a reliever, he made two changes to his arsenal of pitches: a huge improvement in his 4-seam fastball and added curveball which became his putaway pitch. His latest season was 2023 because he had shoulder surgery. He resumed throwing late last summer, and had plenty of time to work on a new pitch prior to spring training. Two highlights of his mindset:
- Always have fun doing what you’re doing.
- Always, no matter how much you think you have it figured out, try to get incrementally better.